Seamus Heaney Poems - 2311 Words

Good Afternoon all, I have been asked before you today to discuss my opinion on the poetry of Seamus Heaney, and although this style of learning wouldn’t be what you’d be used to, I’m hoping you will all benefit from what I have to say and leave here with a clear understanding of Heaney’s brilliance, questioning the meaning behind what he has written. I have decided to take a thematic approach to this discussion rather than spend set time talking about one poem at a time, only for you to grow confused at the end when thinking about which poem a certain idea has come from as I move from one to other. Instead I’ve decided to compare four of my favourite Heaney poems under three headings. The poems I have chosen are ‘A Constable Calls’,†¦show more content†¦Heaney cares for his father, for all of his life he has cared for his father, whether that be while he was watching â€Å"arithmetic and fear† while his father dealt with the constable or while he thought of his father working, â€Å"Touching, inspecting, separating one stalk from the other† in his garden. Evidence of the love being something unspoken of or simply being present is in the last line of ‘A Call’ when Heaney says â€Å"I nearly said I loved him†. Without a doubt there is love between Heaney and his father and throughout Heaney’s work he explains to us how this relationship operated. Moving on to the second them I’ve found to be consistent in the poetry of Seamus Heaney is the stark contrasting theme to Love of being in isolation and alone. On many occasions we see the speaker in the poems left to his own devices, alone to think about aspects of his life. The isolation is seen by the poet as positive, negative or indifferent varies throughout his poems. For example in ‘A Constable Calls’ we can see a sense of isolation in how the life of his parents works. To Heaney, his father is the symbol of authority, as most children see their father. But when the Constable comes to visit their home he sees, possibly for the first time a sense of â€Å"fear† in his father while being questioned by the â€Å"boot of the law†. The isolated feeling holds throughout the poem and right to the end when we hearShow MoreRelatedBeowulf a Poem Translated by Seamus Heaney Essay1072 Words   |  5 PagesIn the poem, Beowulf, by an unknown poet, as tran slated by Seamus Heaney, we see many monstrous behaviors. A few of the examples stand out more than the rest: wanton destruction, a woman acting as a man, and the act of killing one’s kin. Wanton destruction goes against the ideals that governed the Anglo-Saxon culture. The warrior kings had duties to uphold. We see that they revered kings who would bring protection and give freely to the young and old and not cause harm. One good illustration ofRead More In the two poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid,1269 Words   |  6 PagesIn the two poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid, sensuous descriptions of his childhood memories of rural, Irish life. His language is often onomatopoeic as he describes the Comparing the poems the Follower and Digging In the two poems, follower and Digging Seamus Heaney paints vivid, sensuous descriptions of his childhood memories of rural, Irish life. His language is often onomatopoeic as he describes the â€Å"The Horses strained at his clicking tongue† from the FollowerRead More Comparing Seamus Heaney Poems Follower, Mid-term Break, and Digging3940 Words   |  16 Pagesthis essay I will be comparing three Seamus Heaney poems we looked at in class these are called, â€Å"Follower†, â€Å"Mid-term Break† and, â€Å"Digging†. There are differences as well as similarities, the similarities include: they are all poems about and set in Seamus’ childhood memories In addition, all the poems more or less use some of the same poetic devices and techniques like: onomatopoeia and some of the same characters appear in all three poems such as like: Seamus (himself obviously) and his fatherRead MoreThe Tone in Seamus Heaney ´s Poem Mother of the Groom and Robert Hayden ´s These Winter Sundays564 Words   |  3 Pagessaid will be received. Seamus Heaneys poem â€Å"Mother of the Groom† and Robert Haydens Poem â€Å"These Winter Sundays† are all about families and the type of life that a family has to live in that they created for themselves. In these poems the tone is exploited brilliantly to convey the familial theme of the poems and to give the themes more intensity. These poems use the same type of language and theme to create a tone full of regret and loss. The tone in both of these poems are one of loss and regretRead MoreAnalysis Of Poem Digging And Blackberry Picking By Seamus Heaney1040 Words   |  5 PagesJanuary, 2016 Two of the poems written by Seamus Heaney, â€Å"Digging† and â€Å"Blackberry Picking†, contain recurring themes while both discussing entirely different scenes. The first poem, â€Å"Digging†, talks about Heaney’s memories of hearing his father digging in the potato garden outside the house. The second poem, â€Å"Blackberry-Picking†, carries a similar solemn tone, while describing another memory of Heaney’s of his experience with picking blackberries. These poems by Heaney share similar themes of reflectionRead MoreEssay on Analysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney959 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney Once the reader can passes up the surface meaning of the poem Blackberry-Picking, by Seamus Heaney, past the emotional switch from sheer joy to utter disappointment, past the childhood memories, the underlying meaning can be quite disturbing. Hidden deep within the happy-go-lucky rifts of childhood is a disturbing tale of greed and murder. Seamus Heaney, through clever diction, ghastly imagery, misguided metaphors and abruptly changing forms, ingeniouslyRead More Digging Seamus Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, on a farm in818 Words   |  4 PagesDigging Seamus Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, on a farm in Castledawson, County Derry, Northern Digging Seamus Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, on a farm in Castledawson, County Derry, Northern Ireland, the eldest of eight children. In 1963, he began teaching at St. Josephs College in Belfast. The first poem I’ll be looking at is ‘digging’ it was written in 1966. The poem consists of 9 stanzas that vary between two lines and five lines in length. There is no pattern to theRead MoreA Comparison of Death of a Naturalist and Digging by Seamus Heaney1517 Words   |  7 PagesA Comparison of Death of a Naturalist and Digging by Seamus Heaney The poems Death of a Naturalist and Digging have many similarities, and contrasts. Some of the reoccurring themes in the two poems include memories of childhood and changes in the life of the writer. There are contrasts too, in Death of a Naturalist; the writer is concentrating on himself and his own experiences in life, rather than the experiences of others. In Digging, the opposite is true,Read MoreThe Irish Poetry and Postcolonialism2261 Words   |  10 Pagessigned the Treaty in which Ireland was considered a free state. As and introduction to Heaney poems, I will use a poem of Yeats, who is the poet that starts to talk about postcolonial themes. Maybe Yeats was one the most important figures in the reconstruction of the Irish identity. He represents the relationship between Ireland and Britain in his poem Leda and the Swan. The first publication of this poem was in the radical magazine To-morrow in 1923. Some years later it was republished inRead More Comparing Digging and Follower by Seamus Heaney Essays1864 Words   |  8 PagesExamine two poems, Digging and Follower by Seamus Heaney and then compare the poems, explaining both their differences and similarities. The first poem I am going to examine is digging by Seamus Heaney. I will first comment on the title of the poem. Digging has both a metaphorical and literal meaning to it. The literal meaning is that his father and his grandfather are farmers. The poem talks about the men Digging and working, so this explains the literal meaning of the poem. The metaphorical